Sadly, cyberbullying these days can begin in elementary school, and its victims can suffer emotionally and academically.

Now, adults in the classrooms and the courtrooms are trying to craft a way to respond.

Dr. Kathleen Conn, a cyberbullying expert at Neumann University, opened the daylong conference by stressing the seriousness of such situations.

“It’s not a joke,” she told the group. “Students who are caught cyberbullying, they say, ‘Oh, it was just a joke. I just meant it as a joke.’ It’s not a joke. It’s not funny, and it can actually be a felony. And you don’t want either your child or your student dragged off.”

Conn cited an National Education Association study that said 46 percent of school employees said they lacked the training to know how to intervene in a cyberbullying case.